Maintaining Body Weight

[PinotNoir]

In conjunction with the recent post about chiseling out a killer body, I thought I'd share what I do for maintenance.

If you're a heavy set guy, then this is something to look forward too. Maintaining your body weight is so trivial! (At least for men.) Even if you're extremely busy, maintenance is a breeze. It's just initially getting to the size you want that can be difficult.

It only requires 3 things:

1. Buy and keep workout equipment in a convenient location

I have a gym ball next to my couch and some free weights next to my bed. So hey, if I'm watching TV and I look over and see the gym ball, why not do some quick sit-ups? When I wake up in the morning or right before I go to bed or when I'm about to take a shower, I'll glance and see the free weights and do a few reps.

The point is to put it in a location that you'll see. And if the exercise is simple, it's not going to distract you, wear you out too bad, and/or eat up a lot of your free time.

2. Eat smart

If you feel even just slightly full, stop! Eating slow is a great way to let your brain catch up with your intake rate. In fact, whenever I'm at an Asian restaurant, I force myself to eat with chopsticks just for this benefit (and it's fun). When I was a kid, I'd try to eat everything on the plate because I felt guilty for leaving food (the mindset was that it looks rude and also those starving kids in Africa!), but this is not going to help you. Eat until you are slightly full and then stop immediately. If you have food leftover, you can bag it up for tomorrow. Now, I'm not recommending an eating disorder here; you still eat, but just don't overeat. Eat to the requirements of your body.

This is a given, but lower your fats, sugars, etc. You can still eat cookies, brownies, etc., but just be knowledgeable of how much. I limit myself to a few days during the week.

A lot of people recommend light beer also, but I ignore this. Most studies show that it's the food you eat with beer (such as wings, nachos with cheese, etc.) that make you gain weight more than the beer. Although, mixed drinks do have a high calorie count.

3. Do fun outdoorsy stuff, go to the gym, etc. occasionally

If you built up a lot of muscle and are wanting to maintain that, you will still have to go to the gym unfortunately. #1 above will at least save you for a month or so. But, you don't have to go as often as you did when trying to build up the muscle. I've known ripped guys that are able to just go to the gym once a week to maintain. I'd probably recommend 2 times a week though. However, I'm not into huge amounts of muscle, so I can't speak a lot here. I'm just slim with some tone and pretty much never go to the gym but once a month.

Every now and then -- like once a month -- do something fun outside. This can be a long hike with friends or something else: caving/spelunking, kayaking, biking, basketball/football/soccer, etc.

Recently, while trying to meet more women, I've also been walking around a lot: the street, mall, or along a strip of malls. This is a great way to kill 2 birds with 1 stone too: exercise and meet women.


If you have anymore tips, post them!
~PinotNoir

 

[trashKENNUT]

GYM MEMBERSHIP!! Those $60 a year!

Zac

 

[Ross]

Maintenance hasn't really been anything that I've looked at doing, as I've always been trying to fill out a frame that is around 6'3-6'4 tall, which takes a while! I was always jealous of those guys that seemingly never went to the gym, yet still stayed in shape and had a muscular frame (which they had obviously developed in the past, and were in a declining state). Makes me think maintenance isn't that difficult.

When muscle tissue isn't worked, it's known as "disuse atrophy." Basically when the muscles aren't worked, they get smaller. Muscle cells are just an extremely tricky topic at the smallest levels. I read a study a while ago found that bodybuilders have more muscle cells, but they are smaller (caused by muscular hyperplasia), while power-lifters have less muscle cells, but more size (due to hypertrophy). Might mean that type IIb muscle fiber cells have the tendency to grow bigger, while type IIa has the tendency to grow more in volume, giving off the same effect of increased muscle size. Might give off the bright idea that hey, I'll increase number then increase size, but the idea may be shut down because of the transference of types of muscle fiber types.

So do the muscle fibers ever really die off? Might suggest that bodybuilding is going to allow for easier maintenance than power-lifting, and most people body-build for muscle growth (easier and more effective). But there are conflicting studies on this subject.

Something I wouldn't recommend doing is decreasing weight and increasing reps to maintain. This might cause a shift in Type II fibers to Type I, which are obviously smaller and don't grow as easily. Keeping up enough hypertrophy/hyperplasia will allow you to maintain, but this doesn't mean that you should just go once a week. Your hormones and protein synthesis will most likely respond better if you keep the same frequency of working out (3-6 times a week).

Taking all of this in, the best idea for maintaining would theoretically be to keep your weights and volume of your workouts the same, and eat at a level that is maintenance for yourself. Obviously no excess calories = no gained weight. But if you are feeling lazy/don't want to pay for the gym anymore/have a tough schedule, there are easier ways to maintain. Something that I always liked doing when I was unable to find a gym (it was closed or whatever) was to do body-weight exercises for the respective muscle groups. Explosive body weight exercises with a lot of tension over time can and will be taxing (push-ups, pull-ups, various abs exercises, broad jumps, sprints). If you are pressed for time and really can't work out 3 times a week (hard to believe when you can do these body-weight exercises and spend just 30 minutes every other day), then eating over maintenance on the day you do finally work out will cause you to go on a slight yo-yo in weight (fluxuating between around 2 pounds in lean body mass). Yo-yoing in weight isn't very healthy for the body and can add extra physiological stress.

At best, keep your same workout schedule and reduce/increase the calories to maintenance levels. If you can't do this or want to quit your gym membership now that you've reached the appropriate size, doing explosive exercises at home is an alternative. Just remember to keep the calories at maintenance and keep an eye on your weight to make sure it isn't dropping/rising. At the worst, do a 1-day split in the gym and eat over maintenance for that day, and then maintain or eat slightly below maintenance the rest of the days to make sure an increase in the size of fat cells is just replacing the muscle weight.